Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in Las Vegas
by Clemmentine
Summary: Even if we could erase the memories in our minds, could we do the same with our hearts? A rewrite of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with our favorite CSI characters. GSR.


Title: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in Las Vegas

Pairing: Grissom/Sara Romance

Rating: T to be safe

Summary: Even if we could erase the memories in our minds, could we do the same with our hearts? A rewrite of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with our favorite CSI characters.

Disclaimer: CSI (and the characters) is the property of CBS, Alliance Atlantis, Jerry Bruckheimer, and all those rich people involved. 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' is the brain-child of Charlie Kaufman, Focus Features, and a lot of other geniuses, and is definitely worth your time and money to watch. I don't own any part of either, but enjoy both way too much. I am borrowing the characters of CSI, and twisting them into the plot of ESOTSM without any monetary gain.

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Gil Grissom opens his eyes to an evening just like every evening he's awoken to for the past five years. He's alone in his bed, wrapped in his over-priced linens, in his modern bedroom, inside his modest town home, which lies inside a city that exceeds its name. He sits himself up in bed, already aggravated with this colorless day. It's a day just like every other day, and the sun is about to go down. He will never be able to recall what this particular day was like. He was asleep throughout it all, and as always—his dreams were as uneventful as his social life. He lets out his first sigh of the evening. It's time to get ready for work.

Gil showers, shaves, dresses, and serves himself a bagel for his mid-evening breakfast. He grabs his keys, his jacket, and a black work bag that lives by his front door. As he makes his way to his car, he notices the two parallel scrapes etched into his silver driver-side door and yells profanities directed at the sky to no one in particular. He gets inside his injured Lexus and stares at his reflection in the rearview mirror. It takes him a moment to focus on the image of himself, and when he realizes it is himself that he's looking at, he doesn't remember ever having so many scowl lines. He adds one more line to his forehead as he scowls just a little lower into the mirror.

The Lexus purrs to life easily as he turns the key in the ignition and backs out of his parking space and into the Las Vegas rush-hour traffic. The congestion, the noise, and oh God, the smell, were all doing funny things to his head. Of course, Grissom didn't register the thoughts as funny. He was not a spontaneous person, and his brain was tempting him into something very uncharacteristic of Gil Grissom. For once in his life, Grissom gave into temptation and positioned the direction of his car toward the Strip; increasing the weight of his foot on the gas pedal ever-so-slightly. He pulled out his cell phone and pressed 1 on speed dial.

"Catherine, it's me. Yeah. I'm not going to be able to make it into work this evening," he told the phone. "What? Oh, yeah, everything's fine. Look, I'll fill you in tomorrow."

And with that, he flipped his phone shut and let out his first smile of the evening. He had a thrill ride to ride.

The Stratosphere was as crowded as ever with the locals and tourists alike. Grissom paid no attention to the passersby as he focused his full attention on Insanity, the ride peaking out of the tower with its green whip-like tentacles. This was insanity, indeed.

The line was long, but the anticipation great. Couples were seating themselves two at a time onto the ride, and as usual, Gil was solo. No matter, though. He never minded sharing a seat with a stranger who enjoyed a common love of excitement as he. He usually paid no attention to the fellow thrill-seeker, but tonight was different. Tonight, there wasn't the usual middle-aged fanatic sitting beside him so closely. Tonight it was a young woman, mid-30s he guessed, with long, lean legs, crazy-perfect hair, and a gap-toothed nervous smile that she flashed a few times before joining Grissom on the ride.

Gil was immediately taken aback with the proximity of his partner, but didn't have much time to react as the ride started to roar to life.

"Here we go," the woman next to him said as she flashed him another nervous grin, her excitement shown wild in the brown depths of her eyes. Insanity picked up speed, swirling the riders around, lifting them up, and tilting them down toward oblivion. Gil closed his eyes and heard the other riders screaming, felt the push and pull of Insanity, and let himself join in on the screaming chorus of excitement.

It was all over just as soon as it began, as unimaginable excitement usually is. The riders exited Insanity two at a time as they had entered, each giggling wildly in his or her own respected right. Gil was the last to exit the ride, following his partner onto the Stratosphere tower. She gave him one more electric smile before heading toward the entrance of the double-decker elevator. Gil watched her go, utterly involved in her beauty.

He was surprised to find his Insanity partner once again in his general proximity as he munched on his sandwich at the Triple Crown Deli inside the tower. She, in turn, was spooning some type of soup as she read from a magazine of some sorts, Grissom observed.

He wondered to himself why it was that he was so smitten with this woman he didn't know. Wasn't she like every other woman he'd ever met in his life? Only giving him the slightest amount of necessary attention? The answer was no. There was something special about her…he just couldn't figure her out. Yet.

Surprise was the word of the day again as he looked over to see the tall brunette standing a mere two people away from him, on the same sidewalk as he, waiting to cross the same street as he. He caught himself staring at her, and looked away when she caught him doing the same thing. Another smile on her lips. Another beat of his heart.

As the light changed and the pedestrians started to cross the street, Grissom tried to forget about his heart doing flip-flops and focused instead on not falling off the curb as he stepped onto the street. Her long legs doing their job, Gil was met on the other side of the road by a wide, gap-toothed grin. "Hi," said the mouth attached to the most gorgeous face he'd ever seen.

"Excuse me?" responded Gil.

"I said 'hi'. Hello," said the brunette.

"Oh, right. Hi," Grissom managed.

"I'm Sara," she said.

"Gil Grissom," said he.

"It's nice to meet you, Dr. Grissom," Sarah said.

"I-uh-I never said I was a doctor…" retorted Grissom.

"You didn't have to," Sara replied, pointing to the black bag Grissom forgot he was carrying. DR. GIL GRISSOM, LAS VEGAS CRIME LAB was labeled on the side.

"Oh! Right, yes. It's uh, nice to meet you too, Sara…?"

"Sidle," she quickly answered. "You work at the crime lab? I used to be a CSI, too. In San Francisco," she explained.

"Really? Well, what-do-you-know?" he asked, truthfully surprised by her admittance.

"Yep, didn't last long. I don't really think I was cut out for a lifelong of pain and isolation, ya know?" she admitted, not seeming to care that there was a current CSI present. "I uh, I work as a Physics professor at UNLV now. Actually, I haven't really started yet. I start next week," she quickly explained.

"Well, I certainly do wish you the best of luck, Miss Sidle," he stated. "With your new life," he clarified.

"Thanks. Yeah. Hey, did you drive here?" she asked enthusiastically enough.

"Yes," Grissom answered, "I did," and then "Why do you ask?"

"I know we just met and all, but do you think you can give me a lift to my apartment?" she asked, startling Grissom by her acceptance of him as not being a homicidal stalker lunatic. "I was going to just take the bus," Sara continued. "It's how I got here, but that was daylight, and now…it's really not anymore…and…well…I'd rather not make myself intimate with the scum of Las Vegas quite yet," she babbled. "I was all for exploring the city head-on, but I think my thoughts are bigger than my will, and…"

Grissom let out a small exasperated laugh. "Of course, Miss Sidle, I'd be glad to give you a ride home. I just hope you don't file me under your scum-of-las-vegas file," he joked.

"Okay," she replied. "Okay!" she repeated and flashed Grissom the loveliest smile he'd ever seen in all his lonely years in Las Vegas.

TBC

Let me know what you think!


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